gun control

The ruling means that the waiting period law will not be enforced while the court hears an appeal of a lawsuit filed by gun owners' rights groups.

But many of the measures likely face stiff political headwinds given the tighter margins between Democrats and Republican in both chambers of the Legislature and past, bipartisan opposition to some of the issues.

Supporters argue the law passed last year will help avoid suicides by preventing impulsive gun purchases. But opponents see it as an infringement of the Second Amendment.

Mills authored the state's novel "yellow flag" law with a prominent gun rights group. She says a red flag proposal that would allow family members to petition a judge to remove a loved one's guns undermines that law.

The Maine Gun Safety Coalition says it collected more than 80,000 signatures for a bill that would allow family members to petition a judge to remove a loved one's guns if they're considered dangerous.

The Giffords Law Center had assigned Maine a letter grade of F as recently as 2022, but gave it a C-plus for laws passed in 2024.

The Lewiston mass shooting changed Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Golden's perspective on assault-style guns. And that has changed the political dynamics in the close race for the swing-district seat.

Tensions over spending levels between Gov. Janet Mills and members of her Democratic caucus erupted to the surface late Wednesday night, delaying votes by several hours.

Debate over a half-dozen gun bills still pending in the Legislature has been influenced by the mass shooting in Lewiston last October that left 18 dead.

Maine's independent says his bill — introduced with a New Mexico Democrat — targets the mechanisms that can make semi-automatic guns so deadly in mass shootings rather than the appearance of the guns.